How many Tom Ripley movies are there?

In 1960, French crime thriller Plein Soleil (aka Purple Noon) arrived in cinemas. The film – directed by René Clément – was an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s popular 1955 novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and proved popular with critics.

Plein Soleil followed the story of handsome young American, Tom Ripley, who becomes fixated on a wealthy playboy and his fiancé. During the course of the movie, Ripley hatches a plan to kill the playboy and assume his identity.

Although this movie was the first film to feature the character Tom Ripley, it wasn’t the last. Ripley popped up in further films, either as adaptations of The Talented Mr. Ripley or as adaptations of Patricia Highsmith’s other Ripley novels, and built up a loyal following in the process.

But how many Tom Ripley movies are there? Well, for all the details and more, keep reading.

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The Ripley novels in order

Before I get to the movie adaptations, let’s first take a look at the books in the Tom Ripley novel series. Between 1955 and 1991, Patricia Highsmith wrote five novels featuring Ripley, covering different stages of his life.

The books are as follows:

• The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)
• Ripley Under Ground (1970)
• Ripley’s Game (1974)
• The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980)
• Ripley Under Water (1991)

Should you be interested in reading Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley novels, these are the books to hunt down.

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The order of the Tom Ripley movies

Onto the movies now, and to date there are five Tom Ripley films. The Ripley movies are as follows:

• Plein soleil (aka Purple Noon) (1960)
• The American Friend (aka Der amerikanische Freund) (1977)
• The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
• Ripley’s Game (2002)
• Ripley Under Ground (2005)

In addition to the five movies listed above, there are four loosely connected movies, which share a tenuous connection to the 1999 film, The Talented Mr. Ripley. The movies are as follows:

• Naan (2012)
• Salim (2014)
• Amanush 2 (2015)
• Asthitva (2016)

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Are all of the movies part of the same series?

The five Tom Ripley movies act as individual adaptations of their respective novels and are therefore their own separate entities. The films are divided as follows:

The Talented Mr. Ripley adaptations

• Plein soleil (aka Purple Noon) (1960) is a French-Italian-British movie, starring Alain Delon as Tom Ripley. This film is the first adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley and is a stand-alone movie.
• The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) is an American thriller, starring Matt Damon as Tom Ripley. This film is the second adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley, and is also a stand-alone movie.

The Ripley’s Game adaptations

• The American Friend (aka Der amerikanische Freund) (1977) is a German-English movie, starring Dennis Hopper as Tom Ripley. The film is an adaptation of Ripley’s Game, but also uses plot elements from Ripley Under Ground, and is a stand-alone movie.
• Ripley’s Game (2002) is an American thriller, starring John Malkovich as Tom Ripley. This film is the second adaptation of the novel, Ripley’s Game, and is a stand-alone movie.

The Ripley Under Ground adaptation

• Ripley Under Ground (2005) is a German-British-French crime thriller, starring Barry Pepper as Tom Ripley. Once again, the film is a stand-alone movie.

And now onto the loosely connected movies…

The loosely connected movies

• Naan (2012) is an Indian Tamil-language crime thriller, loosely based on the 1999 movie, The Talented Mr. Ripley, with Salim (2014) as its sequel. While both movies are inspired by the ’99 film, neither of these movies are based directly on Patricia Highsmith’s novel and neither feature a character called Tom Ripley.
• Amanush 2 (2015) is a Bengali thriller, which is a remake of Naan. This movie does not feature Tom Ripley.
• Asthitva (2016) is a Kannada thriller, which is also a remake of Naan. Once again, this movie does not feature Tom Ripley.

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Thank you for stopping by It’s A Stampede! to read this post about the Tom Ripley movie series. For more movie posts, be sure to check out the recommended reads below.